Zacchaeus is an example of generosity and how God can use unlikely individuals in his plans. It’s not just about money but about time, talents, and kind words. In this week’s episode of The Bonfire, we talk about finding joy in generosity and how to connect it to your whole life.
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Transcription:
Pastor Jesse Bradley:
Welcome to the Bonfire. We’re in season four, focusing on the hope of Jesus. The Bonfire is a place we can all gather, tell stories, grow in our faith. The Bonfire is about God’s presence and we’re going to take a look at Luke chapter 19. We’re going to go on a journey together and the theme is generosity, a generosity journey and the life of Zacchaeus. It’s interesting how God will take someone who’s very unlikely and they become the instrument that God displays his character.
For example, the apostle Paul, well, his name was Saul. He was killing Christians, but God brought a 180 and he spread the gospel around the world telling everyone the good news. Or Peter who’s an everyday person, a fisherman, and God says, “That’ll be the one who will be the leader, not the religious folks, not the Pharisees and Sadducees,” but God will take the everyday fisherman to make a clear point that it’s going to be God’s power and our weakness and it’s about God’s ability as we make ourselves available.
Here we have Zacchaeus who’s a very selfish, stingy man and he is going to become a picture of generosity. The point is God changes our hearts. His love and his grace, Jesus brings hope. The hope leads to generosity and followers of Jesus should be generous because we receive so much from him. This might be an area for you where it’s difficult to be generous. If we’re honest and let’s be real, all of us want to hoard, protect. We want to store things up for ourselves.
We want to look out for me first all the time, and we just don’t feel like we’re going to be generous and it’s not always exciting. It’s sometimes scary or we feel like we’re losing when we’re generous. Let’s dive into this story and let’s see how Zacchaeus’s life changes and it’s because of Jesus. And I think this will be inspiring for us to live in a different way, to have a different culture and a different response, to look for opportunities, fresh opportunities where God’s generosity is going to be displayed both in us and through us.
Zacchaeus was traveling, Jesus was traveling. They met up and here they are near Jericho. And as Jesus was passing through, we read that Zacchaeus is a chief tax collector. What we know about tax collectors is that they were very selfish. They were often wealthy and they took advantage of people. They worked the system. They spread lies, they manipulated. They were very unpopular. Not much respect for Zacchaeus, but he had a lot of money because he was shrewd with business.
There’s a lot of people that really want money and they’ll do whatever it takes to get more money. They will lie, they will cheat, they will break their word, they will take advantage of their employer. They will steal, all sorts of things. They don’t care about relationships, they want money. That was Zacchaeus. He was classic money over relationships. Sadly, a lot of people get to the end of their lives and they realize with a lot of money in their bank account and a lot of possessions that life’s not about money.
Money can’t buy joy or happiness. Money will not earn a spot in heaven and money doesn’t satisfy the soul. Money is yes, a blessing and opportunity, but you’ve got to get it the right way and then realize it has limits. It can only bring so much. And with Zacchaeus, he had been climbing that ladder his whole life and now he was at a position where he realized he was climbing the wrong ladder and doing it the wrong way.
All of his life, he really wanted money and then he was very wealthy. Now he wants Jesus. How do we know? Well, he’s a short man. There’s a crowd. People are listening to Jesus. Zacchaeus runs ahead, climbs this fig tree. Climbs up in the tree because he really wants to see and hear Jesus. God gives us good desires. Sometimes our desires are heading in the wrong direction.
Here’s a shift for Zacchaeus. He really wants money. He has a lot of money, but he doesn’t have satisfaction. He doesn’t have contentment, he doesn’t have good relationships, he doesn’t have relationship with God. And here comes Jesus, who can bring those things. Now, Zacchaeus really wants to connect with Jesus. The people in the Bible who really want to be close to Jesus, they draw close. And there’s a promise. You draw close to Jesus, he’ll draw close to you. We see Nicodemus at night.
Why is he going at night? Because his peers would be disappointed, they would be frustrated, they’d be angry. He might lose his position if he was spending a lot of time with Jesus. There’s a woman with an issue of blood. She really wants in the crowd to be close to Jesus and she does. She touches the edge of his garment and she is healed. There are four friends that really want to get their friend close to Jesus who’s a paralytic, and they move past the crowds and they break through the roof to get close to Jesus.
One of the greatest things in your life is a desire to get close to Jesus, to be close to him. And if you have that desire, it’s going to take you so far. Jesus sees you. Jesus is going to be close to you today. Why do we have the bonfire? Because we want to be close with Jesus. We want to abide with Jesus. And stories like this remind us that everyone’s invited, that everyone can draw near, that God will not despise anyone with a contrite heart.
Zacchaeus has a sincere, genuine interest in Jesus and Jesus sees him. Jesus sees the one who’s sincerely seeking. And Jesus is Zacchaeus, and at the same time, Zacchaeus is seeking Jesus. Yes, we seek God, but what we know is that God already loves us, pursues us, knows us. Before we were born, Jesus died for our sins. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. God is the one who brings the grace, but his love awakens us.
His hope awakens us. Zacchaeus has some hope that life could be different. Jesus is bringing a hope he has never experienced before. Jesus has more hope than anyone else, and this hope starts to enter into Zacchaeus mind and his heart. Jesus sees him and there’s a personal connection. How’s your personal connection with God? Are your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith? Don’t just learn about Jesus, seek God, seek his face.
There’s a phrase in the Bible, “Seek God’s face.” Not just His hand, his hand of blessing, but seek his face. Moses was someone who is seeking the face of God. It’s when you really sincerely look to God, lift your eyes up to the hills. Where does your help come from? Your help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. Lift your eyes up to Jesus, look to him, worship him, and as you do that, Jesus is going to transform you.
Zacchaeus sees Jesus. Jesus sees Zacchaeus. And Jesus has grace that’s greater than Zacchaeus sin. And Jesus says, “Zacchaeus, I’m going to come over to your house. Tonight, I’m going to spend the night over at your house. I want to spend time with you.” You know what’s radical and shocking for a lot of people? Is how Jesus spends time with sinful people. Jesus takes the initiative to get this extra time with Zacchaeus. And as he’s going to go spend time with Zacchaeus, it’s the religious people who get upset. See, look what he’s doing.
He’s spending time with sinners. This is a classic combination of the rebellious and the religious. Jesus goes to the rebellious, that’s Zacchaeus. He doesn’t honor God. He doesn’t fear God. He doesn’t keep God’s commands. Zacchaeus is selfish. He’s manipulative. And Jesus will go to him. Jesus will go to people that everyone else is going away from. If you’re going to follow Jesus and be like Jesus, you’re going to go to people that everyone else is ignoring or overlooking or writing off.
It starts in middle school, high school. Who are the kids that have no friends? Who’s going to go build a relationship, pursue them? A follower of Jesus will be different on campus. And then you just continue at work, at your job. Who’s lonely? Who’s hurting? Going to those people. In your community, who are people who are rebelling against God? Do you just look down upon them and judge them or do you go and intentionally build relationships?
This takes us way out of our comfort zone and notice there’s a lot of criticism. When you get involved in outreach, there’s going to be a lot of criticism from religious people. Religious people are criticizing Jesus. He’s doing exactly what the father wants, and yet the religious people are criticizing him saying, “Look, he’s spending time with sinners.” Criticism is going to come.
Anytime you go out on a limb and you build those relationships and you share your faith and you do something in terms of serving unselfish, generous like Jesus right here, you bring grace to people that have done wrong, you’re going to get criticism. You forgive people, you’re going to get criticism. Jesus, that’s what he brings, and with it comes a criticism. Don’t ,do not just gauge your actions by popular opinion and if there’s any criticism, you just stop. Yes, listen to the critics.
They might be bringing some truth. But if you just simply pay attention to critics and then try to avoid criticism and keep everyone happy all the time, you’re going to be blown and tossed about by everyone’s opinions. You’re going to be like the wind. You’re just going to be blown and tossed about. You’re not going to be consistent. You’re going to deviate from your purpose.
They won’t understand. They won’t get it. That’s exactly why Jesus keeps going, because he has freedom from these opinions. And yes, those hurt when people, the darts hurt. When people criticize you and they don’t understand you. It’s unfair. It’s not just, it’s not accurate, it’s not good. It’s not from God. It still hurts, but don’t let that stop. You don’t give those people too much power. And we read as they’re criticizing him, see, he’s gone to be the guest of a sinner.
And that’s all, the only way they describe Zacchaeus is a sinner. They don’t see that he’s made in God’s image, that God loves him. They don’t see He’s wonderfully made. They don’t see his potential. They have him in the sinner box and therefore they tell Jesus, “Stay away from him.” This is worldly thinking. It’s not godly thinking. God’s thoughts and God’s ways are higher than ours. They’re different than ours. There are patterns in the culture that are not good and don’t follow those patterns.
There was a culture with the religious people that wasn’t good. It wasn’t really loving the neighbor and it wasn’t really loving God, but they felt rationalization. They felt they had their excuses. They had their reasons why they were holier than thou and they lifted up their noses. And for them they thought they were doing something noble. They were well-intentioned and yet so far off base. And here’s this man who’s stingy, who’s selfish, this sinner Zacchaeus.
Yes, he sins and Jesus is going to transform his life. And as he spends time with Zacchaeus, as that connection starts, hope comes, fresh vision comes, love comes, grace comes. There’s forgiveness. Zacchaeus declares, and this is really bold. He stood up and said, “Look, Lord, here and now I give half my possessions to the poor. And if I’ve wronged anyone, cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” This is repentance.
This is life change. I know I’ve wronged some people. I’m going to pay him back four times the amount. This is a significant heart change. It would be shocking. How could this man after decades of taking advantage of people, now he wants to help people? Say what? See, when you’re walking with Jesus, your life’s going to change and people are going to notice a difference. And one of the things that’s going to stand out is your generosity.
There’s a generosity here that’s overflowing. Zacchaeus is not so concerned about how much he can hoard. He’s not thinking about what he can take from people. He’s thinking about what he can give to people. What’s your perspective? That paradigm shift? This isn’t what I want from you, this is what I want for you. I’m not looking to take something from you, I want to give something to you. I want to add value to your life. I want to make a difference.
I want you to have what you need. That shift right there, that will open up wide doors for you. I remember George Verwer and he was someone who’s now with the Lord, but he was someone who always wore a jacket and it was the globe. It was all the nations of the world. And he had such a passion to love people and go to people and serve people in all nations. I remember him saying, “You’re not going to out give God. When you start to give and you’re generous with your time, your talents, your money, when you do that, watch what God will provide.”
I’ve seen this in ministry so many times that when a person or a church or a ministry starts to be intentionally generous and give, what happens? More people start to give and God just continues to supply. He provides. Where God gives a vision, he gives the provision. And here’s Zacchaeus a changed man. He wants to make a difference in his community.
For generations, children and families in the poorest places in the world have struggled to find clean water, food and a chance for a brighter future, but all that can change in this generation. You can be part of the solution. Go to worldconcern.org. As you participate, this is what will happen, villages will be transformed far beyond where the road ends and children and families will receive the love of Christ. You can make a difference. Go to worldconcern.org. Let’s be part of the solution together.
Let me ask you, how are you making a difference in your community through your generosity? Where you live, work, learn or play, what does it look like for you to be generous? Generous with kind words, generous with your talents, generous with your finances, what does that look like for you and how is God leading you to take bold steps of faith to increase your generosity?
Because as you become more generous, you’re going to see more lives changed and you’re going to see transformation on a deeper level, but it starts in your own heart. You probably have a normal way of doing things, but is it the Jesus way of doing things? What’s refreshing here is that Zacchaeus is no longer holding a tight grip on his money. Instead, he’s looking for opportunities to bless other people.
If we take that posture, and I’m so grateful to serve in a generous church, we presented the opportunity to support children, sponsor children, and 200 people said, “Yes, we want to sponsor children.” I feel like when there’s opportunities in our church to be generous, people step up. Generosity starts with small habits. When you go to church, do you only focus on yourself or do you look around and start praying for people, maybe they don’t even know, but you pray for people you see?
Or do you go out of your way to meet people, start a conversation, walk across the room, introduce yourself? Do you notice the people around you? Do you value the people that are coming? Do you notice who the newer people are? If you’ve been at your church for a while, you probably might start to realize, “Oh, there’s someone new over there. There’s someone new over there.” Do you go out of your way to connect with them? How about your talents?
When you show up at church, do you just expect everyone else to serve and get everything done or are you showing up, realizing you’ve got talents and you’re going to be more fulfilled if you’re generous, if you participate, if you get involved? How about your home? Do people say with your roommates, your family, whoever you live with, that you are generous in terms of food or you’re generous in terms of doing the work around the place or you’re generous in terms of how well you listen or you’re generous with your time?
What does that look like at home? You just start to picture different settings and look at it through different angles of generosity. And listen, I’m not trying to set the bar out of reach. I’m not trying to say that you’re not important and you shouldn’t take care of yourself. Those are extremes with generosity. What I am saying is that Jesus is going to give you a joy in generosity and you’re going to enjoy seeing other people’s lives.
They’re going to start to step into their dreams. They’re going to realize their gifts. They’re going to be served well. They’re going to come alive. They’re going to have what need and they’re going to be empowered. And I’m telling you, in the kingdom of God, that’s treasure right there. That is joy. And as they start to grow, you’re going to grow. And generosity is that bridge that so much is going to travel over. And if you don’t have a generous spirit, you are going to quench and grieve the Holy Spirit.
Here’s Zacchaeus has changed and he makes this decision towards generosity. And there’s a couple of things I want to point out and you can read through Luke chapter 19, spend some time in this story. Ask God to do a work in your heart with generosity. Here’s a couple of keys of what I’ve noticed. First, you need to know whose you are and also who really owns the stuff in your life. This starts for me with my kids. I don’t own my kids. Right? I want to be generous with my kids. My house, I don’t own my house.
Now I know technically, legally I do, but I’m saying that I’m a steward. That means I’m a manager. It means I don’t take my home with me in heaven. It means that ultimately everything I have is Gods. So how can I be generous with my house? Well, that means open the front door. Do you have guests over at your house? For us, a lot of times it’s our kids’ friends. Yesterday there were about eight or nine kids that came over. We had no idea they were coming over, but here they come. Now there’s going to be Nerf bullets everywhere.
Now they’re going to be wanting some food, towels. I’m thankful for my wife. She’s amazing with hospitality. But there’s going to be a lot of action and requests and serving and interruptions and detours when people come over. But how open is your house? When’s the last time you had people over? It doesn’t really matter about how big your house is. I learned this in Africa. It doesn’t matter about how much money you have, what matters is the love in your heart. And that might be a challenge for you.
You might see your place as your place, but when it’s God’s place, now it changes because this is a place where we can connect, we can hang out, and you take some relationship risks and you have some people over. That’s a one way where generosity starts to flow in your life. It starts at home. It starts right there. Generosity could be giving. Yes, I think tithe is a 10th.
That’s what the Bible says. But going far beyond that, that’s where the joy is, in finding certain needs and opportunities where your finances can go a long way. How about affirmation? Are you someone that has kind of a critical spirit where you just stay silent? Well, that’s not too generous. Generosity is when you notice people, what they’re doing well, you thank them, you appreciate them, you compliment them, you validate that they’re gifted.
You validate that what they’re doing is important and you say those things, you put words on it. That’s the generosity. All that sets a culture. I’ve shown up on teams before where there’s not as much unity and there’s not as much joy, and I’ll just intentionally start saying, “Good play, good job getting back on defense. That was an awesome pass.” I’ll just start saying things like that. And as I do that, no one’s ever said like, “Stop it. That’s terrible.”
And they’d also don’t always say, “Oh, thank you. I really need to hear that.” Sometimes they just take it in. But if you’re consistent and you keep bringing that, you know what starts to happen? They receive it, it makes a difference, and now they start to do it too and the culture changes. Generosity is contagious, but it starts with whose money is it? Is it yours or is it God’s? And if it’s God’s, then you hold it differently, you invest it differently, you’re different when it comes to generosity.
Whose tongue is this? Is it mine or is it God’s? God gave it to me so that means I want to steward it faithfully, which means I want to be generous with my words. Whose time is it? Do you call all the shots? Do you decide everything about your time or do you say, “God, direct me in my time, my priorities, my calendar, my schedule.” When you do that, you’re going to have margin for generosity.
When interruptions come, your reaction isn’t going to be frustration, but it’s going to be generosity. Now, yes, you need limits and boundaries. Most people though, are running a little stingy when it comes to generosity. Most people are in that place and it would be a great step of faith to say, “God, come in. Jesus come into my life, my house. Change my heart so that I start to see the needs overseas.” It’s so easy to only be focused locally and miss it globally.
If you’ve ever gone to a country where kids are dying, they don’t have food, they don’t have clean water, they don’t really have many possessions, they don’t have any kind of a home, they don’t have clothes, nothing like we have, you don’t forget that. And then that sticks with you in a good way. And we need that conviction sometimes to be generous.
There’s conviction here for Zacchaeus, and he really has to come down to, “All right, I belong to God now, my things belong to God. Let’s go have some fun. Let’s go make a difference. Let’s go change this community.” And that’s very unlikely starting out with Zacchaeus, but that’s where Jesus takes him and that’s where Jesus will take us. And generosity multiplies. And when it starts with Zacchaeus and his heart changes, it always starts with one heart, then it’s going to go to his community.
There’s going to be a lot of recipients. Then what happens? As they receive, they’re going to be more inclined to give. Because when someone’s been generous to you, it inspires you and you don’t forget it. And you know the difference that it made in your life. And I can think back to different times where someone was generous when I didn’t have a place to live and let me live with them for three months. It was the first time I was in a home with Christians and saw a Christian marriage.
The generosity of opening their house led to the generosity of letting me in and seeing their lives. I don’t forget that generosity. There’s been a lot of specific times, scholarships, financial help. People have been generous to me when I’ve been stuck. And all of those build up. All of those are memorable. And God uses those to change me because naturally I’m a saver. You might be someone who’s naturally a saver or you might be someone who’s naturally a spender, but for me, I’m naturally a saver.
And my wife again has been helpful for me to look out and say, “Let’s give, let’s give, let’s give. Let’s give more. Let’s give more.” And I’m the one who’s usually like, “Do we have it? How’s that going to work out?” But that’s a good tension. And overall I feel the same thing with God. God is the one who’s like, “Reach more, bring hope to more. Start this.”
I mean, that was one of the reasons with the podcast. I looked at that and my first thought about this podcast was, “I don’t think so>” and then spend time in prayer. And God changed my heart. It’s like, “Yeah, the podcast can reach people, help people grow in their faith, help people have hope, help people to learn how to abide with Jesus.” And then it turned into a yes, and I enjoy it. But initially I thought, “That’s not going to work. That’s not going to fit. I don’t think I want to do that.” We did a podcast a long time ago.
I’m telling you, these are faith steps. Generosity is faith steps. And this is the core of it, it’s your own heart. And when you receive from Jesus, his presence, just like Zacchaeus, his grace, his generosity. Jesus left heaven came to earth, he sees you. He spends time with you, he loves you. And as you spend time with Jesus, it’s really hard to stay the same. It’s really hard to stay stingy.
It’s really hard to look at Jesus and say, “All this is mine.” It’s really hard to build your own kingdom and just have money first. When you look Jesus in the eyes and when you look to Jesus’s face and you spend time with Jesus, there’s a freedom of generosity. There’s a joy of generosity. And you know what? Your legacy is going to be built, your story. When you take your last breath and you have your funeral, there’s going to be the story of your life.
And I’m telling you at that moment, you’re going to look back and you’re going to celebrate all the times that were generous. And all the times that were selfish, it might’ve felt good in the moment, but that’s not what you want your story to be. I’m grateful for people who are extraordinary with their generosity, opening up their homes to dozens of kids who are in the foster care system, opening up the home with generosity.
Open up your heart, open up your home, take some relationship risks, and then watch what God will do when you say, “Here am I, God, send me,” or “Here are my words, here’s my money, here’s my talent. God, here they are, they’re yours. I want to be generous.” That simple prayer right there, as we wrap up today, that might be your prayer. “God, I want to be generous.” And as you draw close to Jesus and you realize how much you’ve received, may that free you up.
Freely you’ve received, freely give. And loosen up the grip. And as you take one step of generosity, it’s going to increase your desire for the next step. Remember, Zacchaeus, what he really wanted at the start of the story was money. But what does he want by the end? He really wants to be generous. How much do you want to be generous? There’s no limits to what God can do. God doesn’t run out. God isn’t in heaven thinking, “Well, there’s not much hope.
There’s not much joy. There’s not much love. There’s not many resources.” God owns the cattle on a thousand hills. What he’s looking for is people by faith who will be generous, and those are the people that’ll change communities, that’ll change the nation. Not selfish, but generous. For the glory of God, this is your purpose. Your God-given purpose is to be generous. So run with that purpose, and it’s truly a journey that’s filled with joy because the greatest moments of joy in your life are going to be the generous moments.
Our God is generous. We glorify him with generosity. And if you don’t know God, today would be the day to realize Jesus died for your sins, he’s risen, and put your trust in him. That’s where generosity starts. May he be the source of your generosity. And then enjoy this new adventure because the generosity path is a rich one. And as you give, you’re going to live. As you serve, you’re going to come alive and trust God in this area of generosity.
